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Fresh start dog training and agility club, Northampton (2026)

30/05/2026

Bertie on official duty today! 🐾

Whilst many dogs spend their weekends chasing balls or snoozing in the garden, Bertie had much more important responsibilities.

Today he was representing the Girl Guides as mascot at the Northampton Active Paddle UK clean-up and litter pick event. Looking at the photo, I think he’s taking his role very seriously indeed.

Dogs have a wonderful way of bringing people together, and Bertie seems to have done a fantastic job supporting the Guides and helping promote such a positive community event. By all accounts, he was an absolute superstar and a very good boy throughout the day.

It’s always lovely to see young people giving up their time to help improve their local environment, and even better when they have a four-legged mascot helping them along the way.

Well done to everyone involved, and a special mention to Bertie for his excellent service. I think he’s earned a few extra treats this evening. ❤️🐾

📸 Shared with permission from Bertie’s humans.

30/05/2026

This is one of my favourite times of the day.

I’m sat in the garden with a cup of tea, the birds are singing, the chickens are scratting about looking for whatever it is chickens think they’re going to find, and the dogs are out in the agility field having a play.

It’s still nice and cool, so I don’t have to worry about anybody overheating, and everything just feels very calm.

I was talking to a friend recently about all the work I’ve been doing in the gardens and on the land. He said that when he thinks about how much work there is to do, it makes him feel stressed.

And I found that quite interesting because it genuinely doesn’t make me feel stressed at all.

In fact, it’s probably one of the most relaxing things I do.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a huge amount to do. There are flower beds that need finishing, areas that need weeding, fences that need repairing, paths that need creating, things that need moving, pruning, painting or tidying. I could probably work out here every day for the next year and still find another job that needs doing.

But I don’t see that as a problem.

I see it as a privilege.

I think part of the reason is that so much of my working life has been spent doing jobs where the results aren’t always something you can physically see.

When I was a police officer, you could work incredibly hard on a case, spend weeks or months investigating something, and at the end there was often very little that you could actually point at and say, “I made that.”

It’s similar with dog training.

The results absolutely matter. Watching a reactive dog walk calmly past another dog, helping an owner enjoy taking their dog out again, seeing a nervous puppy grow into a confident adult, those things are hugely rewarding.

But they’re not tangible.

You can’t walk outside and physically see them in the same way you can see a garden.

With gardening, every little bit of effort leaves a mark.

W**d a flower bed and you can see the difference immediately.

Plant a rose and watch it settle in.

Put a shrub in the ground and a few years later it’s become part of the landscape.

Every time I look around, I can see things that weren’t there before. The fruit tunnel. The roses. The paths. The borders. The trees and shrubs that are beginning to knit everything together.

I can stand there and think, “I did that.”

Not because I want praise for it, but because there is something deeply satisfying about creating something and watching it grow.

It’s actually quite similar to dog training in many ways.

Neither happens overnight.

Both require patience.

Both require consistency.

And both reward you for the effort you put in.

The difference is that the garden lets me see that progress every single day.

So today I’m looking forward to spending another day outside. I’ll probably move a few plants, pull out some weeds, plant something else I definitely don’t have room for, and convince myself that I only need one more rose.

The weather is beautiful, the dogs are happy, and for now, that’s more than enough.

🌹🐓🐕☀️

Sometimes the jobs that look exhausting to other people are the very things that recharge us. For me, this is one of them.

29/05/2026

And then there’s Thor.

One of the things I’ve learned with Thor is that progress doesn’t come from rushing. It comes from consistency, patience, and taking opportunities when they present themselves.

Because I was home all day with nowhere to be, I was able to give him some extra freedom and some extra time with me. He spent time in the house and the garden rather than being in his crate, and that gave me the opportunity to really watch him and see who he is.

Now don’t get me wrong, he’s still very much Thor. If food exists anywhere within a three-mile radius, he would like to know about it immediately. And the hunting instinct in him is incredibly strong. You can almost see the spaniel brain switch on when something catches his attention.

What surprised me today, though, was how much he reminded me of Izzy.

When I first rehomed Izzy, my soulmate, she simply didn’t know how to switch off. I could throw a ball for hours and she would still bring it back asking for more. Settling wasn’t something that came naturally to her. It was something she had to learn.

Today, Thor brought his ball over, climbed up next to me and dropped it straight onto my lap. For a moment it was almost uncanny. It brought back so many memories of those early days with Izzy.

The same intensity.

The same drive.

The same feeling that there’s a dog in front of you who wants to be doing something every waking second.

Thor certainly wasn’t resting while I was sitting down. He was constantly on the move, constantly looking for the next thing to investigate, the next game to play, or the next opportunity to see if food might magically appear somewhere.

And that’s what reminded me so much of Izzy.

She eventually learned how to settle. She learned that life wasn’t one long game of fetch and that it was okay to relax.

I think Thor has that same journey ahead of him.

That means there won’t be any quick fixes. Off-lead freedom isn’t something I’ll be rushing into. We’ll take our time, build the foundations properly, and make sensible decisions rather than fast ones.

What has pleased me most is that lately he’s been much more settled around the other dogs. Thor and Spudley aren’t best friends, and to be honest, they don’t need to be. Right now they mostly ignore each other, and for me that’s a huge success. Mutual respect and peaceful coexistence is far more important than forcing a friendship that isn’t there.

It’s another reminder that progress isn’t always dramatic. Sometimes success is simply everyone sharing the same space quietly and getting on with their own thing.

28/05/2026

This weather is absolutely beautiful… although I’ll admit, it’s a little warmer than I’d ideally like for dog training! ☀️🐾

At the moment, my lot are all crashed out on the lovely cold tiled floor in the cottage, making very sensible life choices while the temperatures peak during the middle of the day. To be fair to them, they’ve actually been coping brilliantly with the heat overall.

I’ve got a client later, but thankfully today’s session will be home based rather than out and about, which makes things much kinder for both dog and owner in these temperatures.

One thing I’m really chuffed with though is how well the paddock is working in hot weather. When I designed and set things up, keeping natural shade was really important to me. A lot of the trees were deliberately left because throughout the day they create different pockets of cool shaded areas across the field.

Yesterday I ran classes at 6pm and 7:30pm, and honestly all the dogs did brilliantly. We kept things sensible, included plenty of breaks, and the paddling pools were very popular with nice fresh cold water available throughout the session.

What’s especially lovely now is that the newly grass-seeded area on the new section of paddock creates a huge shaded area during the evening. It means handlers can sit or stand comfortably with their dogs out of direct sun whilst still being part of the class environment.

It’s one of those moments where you realise all the work, planning, fencing, grass seeding, and keeping the trees was actually worth it. 🌳💜

The goal was always to create somewhere practical, calm, and enjoyable for both dogs and people — and I think it’s finally starting to become exactly that.

26/05/2026

I absolutely love this weather… but the dogs and I are definitely having to adapt a little bit. ☀️

The girls have actually been incredibly sensible in the heat. As you can see, they’ve quite happily decided that lying in the shade and conserving energy is the best life choice today. Honestly, they’ve been excellent.

The boys, however, have not quite reached that same conclusion. 😂 They still think charging around the agility field at 100mph is a fantastic idea, so unfortunately they’re having much stricter management in this heat.

At the moment, the boys are not coming out during the hot part of the day at all, other than very quick toilet breaks in the garden for a few minutes just to keep them comfortable. The rest of the time, they’re inside the house chilling and keeping cool.

What I’m doing instead is adjusting their routine around the temperatures. They were out in the paddock first thing this morning at about 5am for an hour, when it was still lovely and cool, and they’ll go back out again later this evening at about 10pm once the heat has properly dropped again.

Last night we did exactly the same thing and it was absolutely lovely. Cool air, relaxed dogs, and everyone could finally enjoy themselves safely without overheating.

I’ve also had to reschedule a few client sessions and classes over the last couple of days, so thank you so much to everyone for being patient and understanding with that. I know it can be frustrating when plans change, but keeping the dogs safe has to come first.

At the end of the day, I’d far rather have a cancelled or rearranged session than an unwell dog. ❤️

25/05/2026

Today is technically my day off… although judging by the ever-growing list of jobs waiting for me on the agility field, I’m not entirely convinced the field got that memo. 😅

Before I crack on with all of that though, I wanted to give a little update on Thor and his adventures over the last few weeks.

A couple of weeks ago, we had two or three little bust-ups between Thor and Spudley. To be fair to them, male dogs are often very different to females when disagreements happen. It was very much handbags at dawn rather than anything serious, and nobody was hurt, but that doesn’t mean I ignore it. I don’t like conflict between dogs, and I certainly don’t want things escalating.

So, we tightened things up a bit.

At the moment, if they’re out together, I keep Spud closer to me and I watch Thor very carefully. If I see him staring at Spud or becoming too focused on him, I interrupt it immediately and remind him of the boundaries. Calmly, clearly, consistently.

I also realised that having loads of balls and toys scattered around the agility paddock probably wasn’t helping matters. Spudley adores toys, Thor adores toys, and having high-value items all over the place while they were simply existing together was probably asking a little too much at this stage.

So for now, no toys in the paddock while the boys are together.

Eventually, we’ll work on turn-taking and sharing space around toys, but right now my priority is much simpler:
I want Thor comfortable around Spud.
I want Spud to stop worrying that Thor might kick off.
And ultimately, I want them to ignore each other.

That, to me, is success.

I don’t need them to be best friends.
I don’t need them to play together.
I don’t need them to interact at all.

Neutrality is massively underrated in dog training.

And honestly, I’m really pleased with the progress.

Yesterday, while I was working on the paddock, Spud was happily sniffing around and Thor simply trotted past him without even acknowledging him. That was exactly what I wanted to see.

Then this morning, Spudley was having a little play with Lilly and Trixie. Thor stayed out of it completely, and when Spud moved away, Thor then went and played with Trixie himself instead.

That’s huge for him.
That’s self-control.
That’s emotional regulation.
That’s learning.

Now… onto the latest Thor adventure. 🙈

This weekend the Springer Spaniel side of his breeding made a very dramatic appearance. Normally, he looks far more German Shepherd in both appearance and behaviour… but apparently the spaniel genes decided they deserved a turn.

The dogs were loose on the land, not confined to the secure paddock because historically I’ve never had a dog escape from there. Then my neighbour appears at the gate and says:

“Have you got a black dog?”

Sure enough, Thor had located a tiny gap somewhere along the fencing and had gone off on his own little expedition into the farmer’s field at the front of the houses.

I retrieved him, walked the entire fence line from the farmer’s field side, located the escape route, and for now he’s back on lead access unless he’s inside the fully secure paddock.

Because now I know exactly what he’d do given the opportunity…

Bog off on an independent hiking holiday. 🤦‍♀️

Bloody Spaniels, eh? 😅

23/05/2026

The field is looking absolutely beautiful at the moment 🌿💜 Even with the crazy weather swings we’ve been having lately!

With this weekend set to be insanely hot, I’ve had to tweak a few timings and plans for classes. Now, anyone who knows me knows this isn’t something I particularly enjoy doing. I hate cancelling, moving things around, or changing plans for clients. But at the end of the day, the welfare of the dogs has to come first, always.

One of tomorrow’s sport dog classes has been moved from its usual location at Delapré Abbey over to Fresh Start HQ instead, simply because I can manage the environment much better here. We’ve got shaded areas, paddling pools filled and ready for dogs to cool off in, and the session plan itself has been adjusted too.

Rather than high-intensity sport work, running and physical drills, we’ll be focusing on calmer picnic-style skills instead, things like settling, relaxing around distractions, boundary work, engagement, and learning how to switch off sensibly in exciting environments. Skills that are honestly just as valuable as the flashy stuff.

I’m also incredibly grateful that my clients are so flexible and willing to roll with these changes. It really does make a huge difference when everyone understands that keeping the dogs safe matters more than sticking rigidly to a plan.

One of the biggest dangers with weather like this is not just the temperature itself, but the inconsistency we’ve had recently. One day freezing, one day boiling hot, then back to cold again. Neither we nor our dogs have had chance to properly acclimatise, and that’s where problems can happen. Dogs, especially driven, sporty, enthusiastic dogs, will often keep going long after they should stop.

So please advocate for your dogs this weekend, guys 💜

If they don’t need a walk, don’t feel guilty about skipping it. Do some training in the shade, play some boundary games in the garden, work on calmness indoors, get enrichment toys out, or simply let them rest.

And if you are walking them, try to stick to very early mornings or later in the evening once temperatures have properly dropped.

Stay safe, look after yourselves, and enjoy the sunshine sensibly ☀️🐾

22/05/2026

Some days are about graft. Some days are about growth. And some days are a lovely mixture of both. ☀️

This morning I’ve got my counselling course, but this afternoon I’m off — and honestly, I’m really excited about it. The sun is shining, it’s supposed to be a beautiful weekend, and I’m very much looking forward to getting back out onto the land and spending some proper time in the Good Life Gardens area and around the field. There’s always plenty to do, but when the weather’s good and you can actually be outside enjoying it, it never quite feels like work.

That said, I am keeping an eye on the temperatures for Sunday. At the moment it’s looking like it could get very warm, so I may need to tweak my full working day slightly depending on how high the temperatures actually go. The dogs’ welfare always comes first, and I’d much rather adjust plans sensibly than push through and make things uncomfortable or unsafe for anyone. I’ll have a proper look tomorrow and make a decision then.

In the meantime, I wanted to share this absolutely brilliant photo from a couple of weeks ago. 🐾

Lilly was doing an expert job as a therapy dog while supporting a young man during a trip around one of his favourite shops. I love this picture because it captures exactly what good therapy dogs do so well — calmly helping people feel safe, regulated, and confident enough to engage with the world around them.

And Lilly, as always, took her responsibilities very seriously… even if she was clearly helping inspect the camping equipment too. ❤️

20/05/2026

Some days are full-on from the moment your feet hit the floor.

Today is one of those days.

From 10 o’clock this morning until around 8:30 tonight, it’s back-to-back with one-to-one clients and classes. It will be a long day, but the kind of long day I’m incredibly grateful for.

Yesterday was a very different story.

After having to cancel agility because of the torrential rain (which is always disappointing), and still feeling a bit under the weather from the weekend, the sensible option was to slow down for a few hours and have a rare duvet day.

As you can see, Trixie thought this was an excellent decision.

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is stop, rest, and give yourself permission to recharge.

Today I’m feeling much more like myself and ready to tackle a busy week ahead.

Now all we need is for the weather to play nicely so I can get some much-needed work done on the land as well.

Fingers and toes crossed for a few dry days! ☀️🐾

Did your dog make the most of yesterday’s rain, or were they bouncing off the walls?

19/05/2026

🌧️ Will summer be making an appearance any time soon? 🌧️

I don’t know about you, but I’m very much looking forward to a few dry days.

There are plenty of jobs waiting to be done at the moment, and most of them involve being outdoors. Unfortunately, when it seems to rain every five minutes, progress can be a little slower than I’d like!

The forecast is looking much more promising towards the end of the week, so I’m hoping to get stuck into a long list of outside jobs and make some proper headway.

This photo was taken yesterday in between the showers, when Trixie decided to give me her very loud and very clear opinion on the state of affairs. I’m not entirely sure what she was saying, but I suspect it had something to do with the weather. ☔🐾

Sometimes you just have to laugh, be patient, and make the most of the dry spells when they come.

Is anyone else desperately hoping for a bit of sunshine this week?

Fresh start dog training and agility club

30/05/2026

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